Data Suggests RNAi May Be Used to Fight
Mad Cow, Other Prion Diseases in Livestock

Researchers this week published data in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggesting that RNAi might be used to produce transgenic livestock resistant to prion disease such as bovine spongiform encepholopathy.

According to the PNAS paper, the researchers designed short hairpin RNAs that suppress caprine and bovine prion protein (PrP). Lentiviral vectors were used to deliver a transgene expressing the shRNAs into goat fibroblasts.